I hope I'm on topic with your list. I would like to buy or have built a
4-bay (19" bays), 33"-high, soundproof, equipment cabinet. I'm not a
builder (heck, I can barely spread peanut butter), so I need to get
someone experienced I could pay to build it, or find a company that
already makes something close to what I need.

I have no closet space and I run a digital studio. The fan noise to all
this gear is driving me nuts. I've looked into some of the stuff that's
on the prosumer market, i.e., IsoBox--it's not what I want. I see
pictures of these beautiful cabinets in recording studio magazines, but
I can't find any information on who makes them.

I said soundproof, but maybe I don't need--or can't get--it completely
soundproof. I want it closed off and vented to either the basement or
outside. It would be nice if it had glass doors in front, and, of
course, I need some way to get to the cabling.

The whole thing has me stumped so I was hoping you guys could give me
some ideas or point me in the right direction. I realize I will have to
buy keyboard and monitor extensions, that's not a problem.

Here's a list of some of the stuff I would like to stick in this thing.

Mackie d8b CPU
Sony DSR-80 DVCAM VTR (sounds like a jet taking off)
Mac G3 and 9600 (why did I buy towers? these could be a problem)
Various hard drives for A/V
CDR-RW (I can't believe how loud this thing is)
2 ADATs

That's it for the major noise producers. The samplers and stuff can't go
in there; I don't need them on all the time anyway.

One thing I'm worried about is vibrations and resonsance with all this
stuff in one cabinet.

We use a carpenter that builds cabinets for custom homes. Show him the
magazine pictures of the cabinets that you are talking about to get him
on the right track. This sounds like an expensive route right off hand,
but you would'nt believe how much cheaper it is than buying studio
specific furniture, and we ended up with beautiful, super sturdy racks.

A few pointers for your design:

1. Leave the space between the bays open to allow you to pass cables
from bay to bay. This also helps to keep your gear cooler than if they
were separately enclosed.

2. Mount 2 space rack rails on the top of the back of each bay. We mount
the Mid-Atlantic frame/panel kits to these for xlr patch panels (to the
patchbay) for floater gear, MIDI panels, headphone feeds etc. Even if
you're not ready for this flexibility, you can always mount blank panels
there until you're ready. Make sure that these are exposed while the
back doors (or cover panels) are attached.

3. Make the bays deep enough to accomodate power strips in the back
without interfering with equipment mounting.

4. Make sure that the doors on the back are removable. This will allow
you to get easily move them out of the way while you're working on wire
dressing, troubleshooting and such.

5. Allow a small gap at the top and bottoms of the front rack rails so
that the finish at the bottom of the cabinet doesn't get scraped up
while installing and removing gear.

6. Make sure to give him a blank 3 or 4 space panel to use as a guage to
center the holes of the rails to ensure that they are correct.

7. Go to Home Depot and look through all of the formica samples to pick
out a good looking counter top while you're at it.

8. Mount the whole thing on a pedistal that protrudes about 9 inches out
from the front to keep rolling chair arms from damaging equipment knobs.

9. Angle the front of the rack to make reading the words on your
equipment easier. If the equipment is mounted straight up knobs tend to
hang over the words and make them harder to read. This also helps to
keep shadows from overhead lighting to a minimum. Acoustically, if
calculated correctly, you can also direct reflections away from your
head and more towards the ceiling by doing this.

We paid $800.00 each for a couple of 3 bay credenzas done like this (not
including the Mid-Atlantic stuff). I haven't found anything close to
what we have for even double that price. Good luck.

Wow! Thanks for all the great advise on getting this thing built. Maybe the
person who built them for you will build them for us, and then I can have it
shipped here to California? If you think that would work, I would appreciate
it if you sent me their phone number. Send it to dan@e...

Again, thank you for taking the time in writing all this out for me. It is
much appreciated.